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Boss Hays' Riverside Mobile Home Acres appears to have run into another spot of trouble. It was all sweetness and light for his planned KONLR downstream from the mothball fleet, judging by a friendly account in the D-G this morning.

But wait. Argenta News is on the mayor's case (yet again). It seems state rules require buildings with lavatories  in RV parks such as the mayor plans. And there are other rules that even Boss Hays isn't powerful enough to waive, king of Argenta though he may be.

You know Acorn. You know the grassroots organization, now a national power, got its start here, led by Wade Rathke (pictured), who spent the group's formative years wheeling and dealing in Little Rock before moving to New Orleans. The local affiliate remains a powerful voice for poor people.

Depending on your point of view, you'll be saddened or gladdened to learn this shocking news:

The New York Times reports today that founder Rathke's brother embezzled $1 million from the organization eight years ago and the matter was handled internally.He stayed on the payroll until a month ago, when whistleblowers finally forced him out.

Wade Rathke said the organization had signed a restitution agreement with his brother in which his family agreed to repay the amount embezzled in exchange for confidentiality.

Wade Rathke stepped down as Acorn’s chief organizer on June 2, the same day his brother left, but he remains chief organizer for Acorn International L.L.C.

He said the decision to keep the matter secret was not made to protect his brother but because word of the embezzlement would have put a “weapon” into the hands of enemies of Acorn, a liberal group that is a frequent target of conservatives who object to its often strident advocacy on behalf of low- and moderate-income families and workers.

Wade Rathke said he learned of the problem when an employee of Citizens Consulting alerted him about suspicious credit card transactions. An internal investigation uncovered inappropriate charges on the cards that led back to his brother.

“Clearly, this was an uncomfortable, conflicting and humiliating situation as far as my family and I were concerned,” he said, “and so the real decisions on how to handle it had to be made by others.”

If one of the prosperous businesses or public officials Rathke and Acorn have bedeviled and humiliated over the years had offered this alibi for wrongdoing, the appropriate response then, as it is now, would have been simple: Bull''''.

Rathke has made a gift to Acorn's enemies by putting his family ahead of integrity. Stunner of a story.

This week's Arkansas Times is now on the web. The new material includes an Insider item about the stripping of Janet Huckabee's name from the Grand Hall at the Governor's Mansion. (Photo is from a state event there. Good thing the Hucks didn't allow booze, what with all those swords swinging around.)

Officials tell us the Mansion Commission voted recently not to have any names on rooms at the mansion and that the sign that existed wasn't aesthetically pleasing. Officials also said they can find no record that the Mansion Commission officially voted to rename the hall after the former first lady, who helped raise money to build it.

Well. I know the Commission held a news conference to announce the naming because I was there. And a commission member was quoted then as saying that it was done by formal motion. There may be further chapters in this story.

Not to worry about the Huckabees being forgotten, of course. A plaque installed by the Huckabee administration outside the hall still remains in place to honor Janet Huckabee. The Beebes have graciously installed a plaque honoring the donors who made the construction possible. The Huckabees had promised such a thing, but the only plaque they got around to installing was the one about Janet.

For old times sake: A look back at a fine Arkansas Leader editorial that rounded up all the things the Huckabees had named for themselves -- and a few of the tributes they accepted, or wanted to accept, along the way.

There'll always be the lakes, nature centers, etc.

UPDATE: Organizer Blake Rutherford says despite the clouds, the show goes on.

'WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY'
Sundown, Riverfest Amphitheatre. Free.

We had already written a fairly cool assessment of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Tim Burton's hyperactive Johnny Depp vehicle, when we learned that Movies in the Park is actually showing the 1971 original, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” A good choice, we say. The remake is eye candy, but it mainly seems geared to give Depp another offbeat character to add to his resume. The old edition can't match the new for spectacle, but it compensates with its focus on character and plot. By balancing the sentimental tale of impoverished Charlie with the sardonic ramblings of Gene Wilder's hermetic confectioner, “Willie Wonka” manages both pathos and humor. Plus, the original has the superior music: For better or worse, it's impossible to forget the Oompa-Loompa theme. —John Williams